This invention relates generally to exercising and gymnastic equipment and devices, and more specifically relates to a portable device, useful in performing gymnastic exercises or the like.
Various compact weighted and unweighted devices have been known for very many years for use by individuals in the course of body building exercises, or in gymnastic-related activities or the like. For example, very numerous types of so-called "dumbbells" are exceedingly well-known in the art. These generally are constituted by weighted elements interconnected by a reduced cross-sectioned handle portion. Many variations upon this type of concept are shown in the prior art.
For example, a very old U.S. Pat. No. 660,962 to Kennedy, discloses a combined dumbbell and indian club, which device comprises a weighted block having a central longitudinal opening extending through same. A handle portion passes through the opening and is threadingly received at its distal end. Such handle can be removed from the center, and reinserted at the threaded end of the block from the outside, to thereby provide an indian club.
In Wright, U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,312, a weight lifting or exercising device is set forth, which includes a pair of hollow and generally spherical shells attached to the end of a bar. The shells include hollow compartments, which can be filled or emptied of foreign materials such as water, sand, shot or the like, to selectively increase or decrease the mass of the individual weights.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,526 to Schwartz, discloses a dumbbell structure adapted for aerobic and related extended-type exercises, in which an elongated body member is provided with a soft, resilient, central hand portion. A threaded portion is provided at each end of the hand portion, so that a pair of removable weights can be threaded on these ends.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,932 to Schuetz, discloses a pair of adjustable weight members interconnected by a skip rope. Each of the exercise members has a chamber, to which water or other fluent material is added in a predetermined weight amount suitable for the user.
Other prior art patents of interest to the present invention includes Solloway, U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,306, and Liberatore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,826.
The present invention is particularly concerned with a type of use, which the prior art, including the above-mentioned prior U.S. patents, has failed to lend itself.
In particular, in recent years, a considerable interest has developed in a type of exercise format, which is akin to gymnastics, or to the type of exercise sometimes loosely labeled "aerobics". In this newer type of exercise routine, the individual may engage in highly fluid, graceful movements, often akin to dancing, or to certain types of gymnastics, with the routine often being accompanied by appealing music, to which indeed the exercises are rhythmically performed. Many of these exercises are performed by individuals who are not necessarily engaged or interested in extremely heavy body building routines, but simply are interested in toning musculature to provide a firm and attractive body, i.e. excessive muscle building is not necessarily an objective of this type of exercise.
While many of these types of newer exercises are performed without the aid of any adjunct weights or other devices, it is highly desirable, in order to more rapidly yield results from such exercises, to make use of adjunct devices, which are sometimes weighted--such as dumbbells, or the like. However, the physically unattractive and unversatile dumbbells and similar devices of the prior art are not particularly suited for use in this type of exercise. Among other things, the conventional dumbbell and similar devices, do not include features which enable ready and fluid movement or displacement of such devices from one to the other hand, or from the hands of one user to those of another user. The said dumbbells and the like further, essentially require that they be grasped in one relatively fixed position. They are not susceptible to a variety of uses, and of manipulations beyond the specific grasping posture which they are usually designed to facilitate.
In accordance with the foregoing, it may be regarded as an object of the present invention, to provide an exercise device for use in exercise, in gymnastic routines or the like, which is attractive and appealing in appearance, and which is provided with specific adaptations enabling the said device to be readily manipulated from all sides of same, to be moved from one to the other hand by the user with ease, and/or to be readily passed from one to another user.
It is a further object of the invention, to provide an exercising device as aforementioned, which is of sturdy, relatively inexpensive construction, to thereby enable it to stand up to hard use for an extended period, including to the wear and tear that results from droppage during the exercising routine, etc.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an exercising device of the aforementioned character, which can be constructed to be of relatively high weight, or can be constructed as to have intermediate, or relatively low weight values, thereby to enable the device to find use by a variety of individuals engaged in different types of exercise functions.
A still further object of the present invention, is to provide an exercising device of the aforementioned character, which possesses interesting and aesthetically appealing characteristics, thereby enabling it to be readily placed or stored in an office, den, or the like, without creating the unsightly appearance of prior art apparatus intended for exercise applications.
It is a still further object of the invention, to provide apparatus of the aforementioned character, which may be produced in a variety of shapes and sizes, all of which, however, perform the same essential functions, and achieve the aforementioned objectives, with a high degree of efficacy.